One of the themes of Ravitch's Reign of Error is the inequities built into the American public school system and the current reform effort. Given her arguments against current reform efforts, it is natural to ask about the conditions inside schools here in Rhode Island, especially since the state won a $75M Race to the Top Grant in 2010. For this assignment, we will investigate local schools and their surrounding community to try to understand the conditions in public schools closer to home. We will base our conclusions on evidence that we can gather from various sources. To understand what might be happening "behind the scenes" within a school or district, we will need to formulate questions and seek out evidence that helps answer those questions. To be successful, you must examine relevant social, political, and institutional factors, understand how factors relate and decide they interact to influence the nature of education in our schools. In the spirit of Ravitch's book, our guiding question for our investigative work will be:
Have current reform efforts such as NCLB and RTTT affected RI schools, especially those that serve Rhode Island's most impoverished students?
Though we all have opinions about schools, our context reports will eventually be public resources, and as such, are based on our best understandings based on evidence. Each description should make careful claims and support them with several pieces of evidence so that our knowledge about each educational context is as reliable as we can make it.
Project Organization
We have been writing papers about school systems, aka "Context Reports," here on URITK for several years before this year. Here are some suggested courses, questions and previous reports that you may use to help in your research.
The map below shows this year's plan. We'll begin our project by reviewing poverty statistics and decided which three school districts we should focus on. Once we decide, we'll split up into teams of four to "divide and conquer" our way to complete the necessary research and develop evidence-based descriptions of these three communities and their school districts. Once the community and district are described, each team member will investigate different school and write a description.
Useful Resources
These websites feature data collected about the area's communities, districts, and schools:
InfoWorks - Current School Information website maintained by RIDE
You are required to include citations in APA format for the information that you decide to include in your report. You should use Zotero to collect and post all citations!
Context Reports from Previous Years
The context reports from previous years remain on URITK, and many of them are "published" on the public space RISchools.wikispaces.com. Please use them as references! Important: You should not describe a school that has already been described on RISchools.wikispaces.com without permission from the instructor.
Step 1: Research and Describe School Communities and Districts
In this past, students have focused on these variables to describe their community, district, and school. While these serve as a good guide, you may need to collect additional information in order to be able to answer our driving question. Given the short time we have available, you can focus only on describing your community and school. Unlike in previous years, you should spend some time in your descriptions addressing the project's driving question.
A. Community Data and Descriptions
Before you begin writing, you should research your community. Use the links below to begin a notes page where you can gather your data. You can used the templates "EDC 503 Community Data - Census" and "EDC 503 Community Data Kidscount" if you'd like. It might be faster just to "clip" any pages that you find useful into your Personal Knowledge Base (Evernote).
Assignment
One of the themes of Ravitch's Reign of Error is the inequities built into the American public school system and the current reform effort. Given her arguments against current reform efforts, it is natural to ask about the conditions inside schools here in Rhode Island, especially since the state won a $75M Race to the Top Grant in 2010. For this assignment, we will investigate local schools and their surrounding community to try to understand the conditions in public schools closer to home. We will base our conclusions on evidence that we can gather from various sources. To understand what might be happening "behind the scenes" within a school or district, we will need to formulate questions and seek out evidence that helps answer those questions. To be successful, you must examine relevant social, political, and institutional factors, understand how factors relate and decide they interact to influence the nature of education in our schools. In the spirit of Ravitch's book, our guiding question for our investigative work will be:Have current reform efforts such as NCLB and RTTT affected RI schools, especially those that serve Rhode Island's most impoverished students?
Though we all have opinions about schools, our context reports will eventually be public resources, and as such, are based on our best understandings based on evidence. Each description should make careful claims and support them with several pieces of evidence so that our knowledge about each educational context is as reliable as we can make it.
Project Organization
We have been writing papers about school systems, aka "Context Reports," here on URITK for several years before this year. Here are some suggested courses, questions and previous reports that you may use to help in your research.
The map below shows this year's plan. We'll begin our project by reviewing poverty statistics and decided which three school districts we should focus on. Once we decide, we'll split up into teams of four to "divide and conquer" our way to complete the necessary research and develop evidence-based descriptions of these three communities and their school districts. Once the community and district are described, each team member will investigate different school and write a description.
Useful Resources
These websites feature data collected about the area's communities, districts, and schools:
You are required to include citations in APA format for the information that you decide to include in your report. You should use Zotero to collect and post all citations!
Context Reports from Previous Years
The context reports from previous years remain on URITK, and many of them are "published" on the public space RISchools.wikispaces.com. Please use them as references! Important: You should not describe a school that has already been described on RISchools.wikispaces.com without permission from the instructor.Questions and Resources Located by Students in Previous Classes
In previous years, we worked together to brainstorm questions and assemble resources for each section of the context report.Step 1: Research and Describe School Communities and Districts
In this past, students have focused on these variables to describe their community, district, and school. While these serve as a good guide, you may need to collect additional information in order to be able to answer our driving question. Given the short time we have available, you can focus only on describing your community and school. Unlike in previous years, you should spend some time in your descriptions addressing the project's driving question.
A. Community Data and Descriptions
Before you begin writing, you should research your community. Use the links below to begin a notes page where you can gather your data. You can used the templates "EDC 503 Community Data - Census" and "EDC 503 Community Data Kidscount" if you'd like. It might be faster just to "clip" any pages that you find useful into your Personal Knowledge Base (Evernote).
Step 2: Draft Shared Portions of the Context Report:
District and Community Descriptions - Due 7/9
Step 3: Draft School Descriptions
School Data
Use your Evernote Web Clipper and your PKB to assemble information / data on your schools.
School Descriptions - Due 7/11
Step 4: Use our Community and School Descriptions to Assess the Effects of NCLB and RTTT - Due 7/16